Roads Not Taken
My art is a rite of passage. I emerge from it weary, frustrated and temperamental. It is a journey that winds sinews around brain, heart, hands.
When I draw, my eyes wander over the surfaces of my subject: curves that wind and widen, dip and disappear, straighten, stop and start. The slightest fold is an expedition into texture, light and shadow. It's no wonder, perhaps, that a square inch of work leaves me tired and shaking.
I finished this today:
It's a favorite subject of mine. Scarves. I have so many: silk, cotton, velvet; stamped with patterns of cities, castles outlined in turquoise, leaves and peach-colored shells. They are embroidered with fiery sequins and beads, decorated with knots, bows and spirited fringes.
This particular article was a mild, pastel green. In my uneducated hands it felt like rough silk. The fabric was delicate, with each individual thread standing apart and catching its own angle of light; so what I held was like five feet of shimmering air.
This took me about a week to draw. Every day, as I peered into the green folds, it seemed as if I was traversing meadows, hillsides and bowers that I'd never seen before. Sometimes the path was wide and verdant...sometimes it took a sudden turn and vanished completely.
I like this picture. It is a travelogue, a cartographer's fancy. It is my sculpture; carving into stone, through silk and across fields.
Comments
Ah, you brought back memories of college where we would do still-life studies of drapes in pastels, watercolour and oils.
I would love to see pics of your scarves.
Either way, congrats on finishing something that looks like something (and not a bad something to boot)! :)
SHorse - It's also disconcerting to see the folds and textures of fabric when looking at hillsides and mountain ranges; disconcerting but fabulous!
Suga- - Most of my scarves are my mother's; 40-50 years old. I also have a few from Liberty's of London: as lush as you can get.
Porphgyrl - Thank you! Scarves are the perfect accessory - the one that no one expects to see. I tie them with the bow at the back of my neck - a co-worker once said that I looked like a present.
Lavender - It was sort of peaceful, getting the feel of the landscape, and understanding it, and knowing where the next turn would be, before it even appeared on the horizoin.
Pen - You capture it s-l-o-w-l-y - very slowly!
My Queen - We tried contour-line drawing in high school, and I never got the hang of it. I wonder if any of my art classes taught me anything - other than forcing me to go out on my own.
Nice work and nice post, Aubs!